Rakuten.jp prices for Gear Up

Japanese shopping site Rakuten have listed some prices for a few of the Gear Up repaint line of N-Strike blasters- the Recon CS-6 and the Maverick REV-6. Translating the page of course is never the best way to get info so happy to put it to anyone who can read Japanese. The translation for the Recon:

Limited N-Strike Giaappukarabajon!


Six bullets and darts normal stream, in addition to a total of 12 bullets darts plus six bullets had painted up a gear as a bonus darts, darts has been sealed prior to use disk-shaped vortex!

Also on the page are some links to preordering the Vortex series- there're no images but they've got placeholders and product text:

The new line, "Vortex" series was born! !
N-Strike series Rongudisukushutingu beyond!
The disk-shaped darts, which significantly exceeds the distance achieved Rongudisukushutingu normal firing NERF!
The new line, "Vortex" is Ridoaitemurasuta series.
Disks can be loaded with five bullets. N-shooting can be enjoyed over the long strike.

Sorry, my Japanese sucks:P

Nerf via Rakuten

WIld Planet Spy Gear: Innovative in a dorky kinda way

I love the Wild Planet Spy Gear line. It's so cheesy, but their stuff at least is innovative and different to most toy blaster lines out there and combines electronics for some pretty cool designs. I'm not sure how practical any of this stuff would be in any real battles (why alert your enemies with an alarm to let them know you're ABOUT to shoot them when you've gone to the trouble of hiding and shooting remotely?!), but I like 'em anyway.

This one just cracks me up:) I still want one though:)

Max Force Shadowhawk spotted: Target Chadstone VIC

Max Force Shadowhawk: Image courtesy of CPT-Blackridge via deviantART

Kyle, One of our readers has picked himself up the new Jakks Pacific Max Force Shadowhawk today at Target, Chadstone in Victoria, Australia. It's looking pretty trick- and his initial opinions:

"Okay, overall build is pretty good, bipod a tad flimsy, Pump is the firing mechanism, pull back to prime, release to fire, MASSIVE spring, bolt action to load next shot. Overall a very impressive piece of kit, will get it out to do some firing tomorrow"


Update 1-6-11 Kyle tests the performance: "did a proper test fire of the Shadowhawk 100, range isn't an issue, the projectiles can definitely make the distance. The issue is that it's susceptible to misfires and accuracy varies on whether or not the wad actually stays together or whether to force of the oversized plunger shreds it in the barrel. Will run more tests and keep you posted"


Update 3-6-11 Kyle's indepth tests:  "Okay i finally did a more comprehensive shoot with the Max Force Shadowhawk 100, range is as they say, accuracy varies, don't try to use the sight but with a little practice hitting a man sized target is no problem, even at ranges far beyond the capacity of a nerf blaster. Jamming affects it if you don't fire correctly, or don't properly soak projectiles. But as for the boast that they're harmless... i shot my friend in the bare stomach with this thing and it left a welt the size of a five cent coin for a few hours WEAR THE PROTECTIVE EYE GEAR"

Interesting to see how it fares. Thanks for the intel Kyle!

Aliens: Colonial Marines: Sega's "official" mod.

This is the kind of marketing I LOVE. Reports on the Official Playstation Magazine -Australia's Facebook page have them receiving a very cool package from Sega, the distributors of the new Aliens: Colonial Marines due out later in the year. Given the last promo gift was Newt's doll (or what was left of it) 'Casey', this is much much cooler.

Nice touch. 'Explosive' Streamlines:)

Images courtesy of the Australian Official  Playstation Magazine

Max Force blasters spotted: Toyworld Fyshwick (AUS)

We've been getting word on the new Max Force range of blasters have made it to Australia early- original press releases said they'd be in the latter half of the year but it looks like they've made it to our shores much much sooner. First word was that they were spotted in Tasmania; now our boys from the Canberra and Southern NSW Dart Tag crew have spotted the Blow Gun at Toyworld, Fyshwick in Canberra (my town!).

They're going for around 18bucks AUS (which is almost double the US prices!!). More information about US releases after the jump.

Indigo Studios: Packaging Portfolio gives me a happy

As we featured in a below post, Indigo Studios are Hasbro/Nerf's choice for package design. I had a look at their design portfolio online and I think I nearly pee'd myself in excitement; check these out! 

That being said, chances are these ARE just design concepts, but HO-LY crap this would be some exciting stuff if these made it into production. The Spectre looks amazing in Whiteout colours..

 

Sonic series is cool and all, but I have to admit that any blaster that's released in the new Whiteout series is going to be on my Santa list this year..

Update: Unfortunately, the portfolio has been taken down. I'm not sure why this has occurred, but it reiterates that it's most likely these images in their portfolio are just demonstrative of what they can do, rather than it actually making official release. Please don't hound them for info- they're designers, not manufacturers.

Indigo Studios Case Study: Nerf

Now here's something interesting. Indigo Studios are a design studio in Atlanta Georgia (My favourite town!) who appear to be responsible for designing the current packaging for Nerf. They've got a case study on the process on how they design the images for the boxes on their site. 

It's an interesting read, but what I'm really liking in the case study is they actually make reference to 1)The Whiteout series, and 2) have a look at the last two images of their CAD designs.. one's a Vortex Proton.. the other.. yup big ballz Stampede 50 round drum.. :P 

Please don't hound them for more product information; they're designers, not manufacturers. 

Nerf Case Study via Indigo Studios

Nerf N-Strike 'Whiteout' series: It's confirmed- SGNerf

It's officially called the "Whiteout" series and has come without any official warning! You'll recall we got ourselves a white Maverick a few months back, lending itself to much speculation and discussion (and perhaps a bit of confusion too). A few pricelists popped up over time but not much else, so this would have to be the first time we've actually seen/heard of a real title for the line.  

And.. straight up they're available in Singapore, as posted by SG Nerf this morning. We were speculating what the forth blaster would be (We know the Maverick, Deploy and Nitefinder were on the pricelists) and it's confirmed it's the Longstrike CS-6 and it looks TRICK in this new colour scheme.  It's an interesting choice with the Longstrike, and many of the haters will roll their eyes at this (actually many of the haters will roll eyes at the idea of ANOTHER paint job anyway) but it really works.

A selection of pics courtesy SGNerf is featured after the jump, but for the full kit and kaboodle, hit up his blog.

Note: Interestingly enough, despite this official release today there's no official mention of the Whiteout series anywhere on the Nerf site or Facebook page. Any attempts to post images of the Whiteout blasters on their Facebook page have been removed?!  Could it be another case of "if it ain't in the US it doesn't exist" mentality?

YouTube-Sean Long:Captain America disc shooting shield

A review of the Captain America Disc Shooting Shield from Sean Long. Didn't get a very good review:P

Green Lantern goodies- disc shooters and..fist.

Sean Long vids crack me up- he doesn't take himself seriously and while does go on a bit, the reviews are pretty detailed and give you a good understanding of the toys.

He's reviewing the Green Lantern stuff in these vids- Mattel are doing some pretty interesting stuff with their Green Lantern movie tie-in gear although there DOES seem to be a lot of emphasis on..fists:)

Disc shooters.. seems to be a trend going around... :P

Time to Play- Dart Zone Quickfire 12 + Gattling Blaster

We admit here at Urban Taggers we tend to pay out the Time to Play vids a lot- maybe because they tend to look so awkward when reviewing their blasters. That being said, we actually quite like this one for the new Dart Zone Quickfire 12- its informative and pretty good. (but I think we've just been influenced by the fact it's a pretty lady:)..)

This one.. not so much:)

Jakks Pacific Max Force: Ammo belt + Eyewear

We got our hands on some related images to the new Max Force line of "spitwad" shooters from Jakks Pacific. Above is an ammo belt.. that's some serious wet paper firepower:)

Replacement pellets seem to come in nifty white plastic cannisters . The protective eyewear looks like it's taking its cues from the popular Oakley Gascan styles.

Nerf Gear Up Official images: Nerf Nation/Facebook

Gear Up Raider CS-35. Lil' green thing included:)

Nerf have posted official images of their upcoming limited edition Gear Up blaster repaints on their official Facebook page. What's a very clever marketing move is they appear to throw in a sample of the upcoming new Vortex range disc ammo. I'm not quite sure why the Raider is featured here with whistler darts rather than streamlines, but that might just be a promo image faux pas:)

I have to admit, they may just be repaints of blasters I already own (and I have multiples of all of these..how many Maverick and Recon variants does one person need!).. but I'll be shellin' out the $$ AGAIN for them. They look TRICK.

Gear Up Recon CS-6

Gear Up Barricade RV-10

Gear Up Maverick REV-6

Time to Play- Thor Hammer

Ahh Time to Play. We'd feel bad about paying their vids out but we're sending them traffic so ultimately, they win:) This one is priceless. As a projectile shooter, this hammer fails:)

Rant: Blasters- What really MAKES it for you?

Airzooka. "can you mod it to shoot darts?":P

Regardless of reports boasting some serious performances, the upcoming Vortex series from Nerf has many of the fans split on the new type of disc ammunition; it seems that we've all become so accustomed to foam darts that even Nerf can't make this alternative ammo seem appealing.

Fans are always going on about distances; it's this pursuit that resulted in modders existing in the first place. Blasters like the Longstrike get absolutely slammed despite it being recognised as one of the best looking blasters Nerf have ever released mainly due to it's ordinary performance (and really, it's not even that bad) and people are always so caught up with how far things can shoot that they'll even go as far as building their own home made blasters. Ugly as sin, but damn they go far..

It's been demonstrated that distances can be achieved using alternative ammo- it's confirmed that X-ploderz blasters get some serious range compared to foam; Jakks Pacific's upcoming Max Force line is reported to hit 100feet ranges out of the box with glorified spitwads. Nerf's Vortex is looking like it'll do similar distances with their new XLR discs. And yet the critics are still sceptical- mainly because of the fact it's not with foam darts. Whenever any new blaster comes out, the first thing everyone asks is "can it be modded to fire foam darts?"

Interestingly enough, one of the biggest debates on Nerf is "Nerf vs Airsoft". Airsoft doesn't shoot foam darts either, and yet we entertain the notion of Airsoft being something that deserves consideration as a 'rival'.

What's even more puzzling is the concept of stefans and other r+d put into creating better darts with more weight and more robust foam than the traditional stock variety. We're no longer comparing apples with apples now are we?

So what is it that's really important to us?  What about the way the blaster looks? We at UT tend to put a lot of weight on aesthetics above all, but I admit if this was the only aspect we cared for, we'd not bother getting projectile blasters and just stick with glorified props. Nope, we need it to shoot.. SOMETHING. We cut our teeth on water blasters and always have laser tag warm to our hearts; sure we're loving foam but I admit I really enjoyed poppin' out marshmallows at my fiancee...as long as we can get some confirmation of a tag, we're happy:)

I'm interested in hearing your views, fellow taggers. What's really the clincher for you? What's important to you when purchasing a blaster? And what is it about those lil' tubes of foam that excite us so much?

Jakks Pacific Max Force: A new player

Shadowhawk 100: image courtesy of Jakks Pacific

Jakks Pacific had modest success with their various Laser Challenge branded laser tag systems and in my opinion were very much responsible for keeping home laser tag alive over the past decade; they have to date been pretty quiet in the actual projectile shooter style of blasters..until now. Their upcoming 'Max Force' line of shooters due to be released real soon are a very modern take on a classic projectile- the spitwad:) Throw away those pen biros.. pea shootin' never looked so good:)

Bluefire's writeup: Vortex Series vid 3

Our man Bluefire has been doing some very detailed analysis of the Nerf Vortex vids; he's outdone himself again with a latest critique on Nerf's 3rd Vortex vid. Full details after the jump:)

Pre-order Optimus Prime Cyber blaster: Amazon.uk,The Toy Shop + Play.com

For every GOOD movie tie in blaster, there are countless crappy ones to make us turn a blind eye to them, however in this instance I actually have a lot of hope for this one. This 'Optimus Prime' Cyber blaster was featured during our posts on the Toy Fair early this year- and it looks like the UK seem to be the first ones who're starting to take pre-orders for this bad boy. Sure it's not "officially" Nerf, but it's Hasbro, and that's pretty much the same gene pool:)

It takes batteries which I originally guessed was for light and sound because it looks like it has a manual primer on the top of the blaster; it does seem to state in the product descriptions it's automatic...more after the jump.

Spielwarenoase.com: Nerf Vortex Prices (EURO)

While we do normally only talk $$ in Australian dollars, here's some intel for our friends in Europe from a German site "spielwarenoase.com.. which of course means it's in German, but here are some pre-order prices for the upcoming Vortex range. What's interesting is you can see they'll be providing ammo disc refills in 6 packs, as well as a "tech set" which unfortunately atm the linked image is broken so I can't see exactly what it is (and most other searches for it come up with the same broken image)


Nerf Vortex via Spielwarenoase.com

General's Toyporium: Nerf Vortex preorder prices (AUS)

Nitron for 99 bucks!

Our pal Neil from the Canberra & Southern NSW Dart Tag crew have given us the heads up that Australian e-tailer, the "General's Toyporium" have listed preorder prices for the new Vortex blasters to be released in September, 2011.

The pre-order prices are:

Nerf Vortex Nitron: $99.00 AUS
(comparable to the Stampede's pricing at launch last year)

Nerf Vortex Praxis $49.00 AUS
(about the same RRP as the Recon CS-6)

Nerf Vortex Vigilon $34.00 AUS
(comparable to the Alpha Trooper or even Speedload 6)

Nerf Vortex Proton $24.00 AUS
(around the original price of the Maverick + Nitfinder 18 months ago)

Pre-order here at the General's Toyporium if you're interested:)

Tactical Tag: LTX DMR Progress Update 7

Our man Bazookafied has been working on a sweeeet project fitting a Phoenix LTX Lazertag blaster into Stampede ECS. He's almost there.. but alas not quite.I have utmost faith it'll happen.. it as to.. look at how maad it looks!

In his down time, he made a very sweet re-shell of a Laser Challenge blaster by popping it into a Nerf Spectre; the results are awesome:

Check out more here:)

Lazer Tag Phoenix LTX mod.. sooo sweeet PIC SPAM

Courtesy of Laser Tag Taiwan, check out this maaaaad Phoenix LTX mod. Alas there's no way I could get my hands on such cool airsoft stuff to cull and use in Australia to replicate it, but it gives me muchas ideas... the full post and details available here.

Lazer Tag Phoenix LTX repaints.. cos they need them.

Phoenix LTX repainted, courtesy of  Omaha laser challenge association

Lately I've taken a break from foam blasters and gone back to my tried and true love of Laser Tag. While I totally love my Lazer Tag Phoenix LTX's, the issue is they're pretty damn ugly. They come in a pretty poxy aqua light blue, or baby poo gold, neither of which are that nice to look at.

Although I'm not much of a handy man, I've really been considering doing a repaint of them; something like this, which I found from the Omaha Laser Challenge forums. Be interested to know if anyone else has painted theirs.. any pointers welcome!

The flashlight attachment is a neat touch

The original colour schemes of the LTX's. not priddy.

Nerf Nation: Official Vortex images on Facebook

Vortex Nitron: The battery powered one

I know, I know, nothing we haven't seen before. But Nerf's finally officially put genuine pics up of their blasters on their Nerf Nation Facebook page. Probably a little sharper and more detailed than the original leaked pics we posted before. Anyway, so here they are.. again:)

Vortex Praxis- the one with the detachable stock, Recon style

Vortex Proton- the single shot one

Vortex Vigilon- The.. um.. other one:)

Camo Streamline Ammo now available. Pic Spam

After quite a delay, Australia's finally getting their domestic shipments of Nerf Camo Streamline darts. I'm quite a fan of these- they're a darker digital grey camo than the whistlers. Personally I don't find them performing any better than the traditional orange streamlines (arguably they're a lil' more weighty, but it might just be because they're fresh out of the box)

Soo.. no doubt there'll be the standard whingers who go on about "what's the point of camo ammo" and how useless they are in outdoor wars. And there'll be those of you who will say "meh I got these AGES ago.." etc etc. But as far as Nerf is concerned, I'm 1) a completionist, and 2) an aesthetic and these darts hit the sweet spot for both. 

More pics after the jump. Under 25 bucks at Targets all over (well at least all over Canberra!)

YouTube - Nerf Vortex- we're getting more detailed..

Nerf's official introduction to the new Vortex line in their new vid featured on their Facebook page Nerf Nation. Here it is for those of you who don't like believing rumours and sneak previews and only like things from official sources. It shows the blasters and their official  names in "360 degree" views, complete with a tuff military style drum beat soundtrack. Hoo Rarrr! 

Nerf Vortex: Proton instruction manual

The Proton. Looks priddy. Mechanism revealed!

And another hot lead from Joshrox123- here's the user manual for the Nerf Vortex Proton. We've only got two pages for this one though:)

Nerf Vortex: Nitron instruction manual

I guess this was bound to happen; a mad tip from Joshrox123 has us getting our hands on the user manual of the upcoming Nerf Vortex Nitron. All that speculation of what is that "thing" on top of the blaster is now revealed. Rest of the manual is after the jump-Thanks Joshrox123 (and a gentleman called 'Crazycon')

Nerf Mods & Reviews: NM&R Super Sale New and Modded

And then some..

If you've ever wondered how extensive Nerf Mods & Reviews' blaster collection is, you gotta check out their current sale; Jerm's selling most of his blasters off, and its QUITE the arsenal. There's a lot of good stuff there on offer for decent prices, both modded and in box so you really should check it out. I've thought about doing it myself; the ol' collection is just getting a lil too big these days:P

Nerf Mods &Reviews: NM&R Super Sale New and Modded

X-Shot: Another pic of the Duel

And another pic of the Duel, courtesy of loyal reader P13c30fch33s3. Just sayin:P

Ubisoft Forums: Battle Tag- An in depth review

Battle Tag will make u, jump.. jump..

Other than the cost, there's a LOT about Ubisoft's Battle Tag that I like. To date it has been pretty poorly marketed though, and it's definitely NOT available in Australia as of yet, so most of what I've heard has been based on speculation. One of our readers Mike has posted a very indepth review of the system on the Ubisoft Forums and it sounds like they're pretty damn awesome- we have however featured the full review after the jump if you don't wanna leave UT:)

In depth review of the system via Ubisoft Battle Tag Forums

UPDATE: I also found this video review on the "Angry Joe show". It's pretty long, and he did get a review copy back in December 2010 when they still had teething issues, but it shows the units in action.. or lack of:P

YouTube - X-Shot Fire Ball.. (WTF?)

For those of you who've been visiting the All Brands Toys website, you may have noticed in the X-Shot blaster line there's also a new product called an "X-Shot Fire Ball".

Now.. obviously the website doesn't give us a WHOLE lot of information, which therefore provoked me to do two things.. one- cry "What IS that?" and then two- search on the web to see if I could find out more. In the end, I found it on youTube... and it's.. not exactly what I was expecting:P

YouTube - X-Shot Fire Ball Spot

X-Shot: More on the new lineup

Just some intel thanks to loyal reader P13c30fch33s3: the new line of X-Shot blasters from Zuru are starting to pop up and are looking pretty interesting. Alongside the new revised Sidewinder that shoots darts AND discs, there's also a new 'Duel' that looks like a single shot blaster; there's also a "Turbofire" that looks to be a Raider style blaster, with a 20 dart capacity. 

It looks like X-Shot have dumped the water functionality this time around.. which probably is a good thing:)

YouTube - Nerf Dart Tag 2011 behind the scenes

A behind the scenes vid on the Nerf Dart Tag 2011 commercials. While I GUESS it's interesting, you wonder how many people get into this; behind the scenes footage of your favourite movie- definitely. Behind the scenes/making of a commercial? Hmmmm. :) Guess it's the only way you can really get to see more of the ill fated Orange team:P

YouTube - nerf's Channel

"Original ideas": Updated X-Shot Sidewinder

It's pretty hard to be original these days. X Shot Blasters are the new kid on the block; the first series of blasters boasted both foam dart and water functionality which we thought was the unique selling point of the line to separate it from other brands. Arguably it was the Sidewinder that was supposed to be the most unique of the lineup; however it looks like it's been updated to do away with the water functionality and swapped it for an all new innovative.. disc shooting one..

Now I'm all for predicting trends, but you've gotta wonder how it was that the good peeps at X-Shot came up with the idea to do that? What possibly made them out of the blue think "hey.. lets update our blaster with a DISC shooter..just for funsies.."

It doesn't sound particularly orginal now, does it?